As Threat of Coal-Ash Pollution Grows, Data May Diminish

Coal-ash ponds at Duke Energy’s retired Cape Fear Plant at Cape Fear River near Moncure, N.C. Photo: Waterkeeper Alliance Inc.

TipSheet: As Threat of Coal-Ash Pollution Grows, Data May Diminish

Coal ash may soon be a bigger story in your area, with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just days ago proposing changes in an Obama-era rule governing its disposal.

But environmental reporters should not only get ready for differences in how it is regulated, but in figuring out how to find data about it in the first place.

Coal ash is the byproduct of combustion and pollution control at coal-burning electric power plants. You may hear people refer to it as fly ash and coal combustion residuals, or CCR.

Electric utilities produce vast amounts of coal ash, and over the decades have stored, rather than safely disposing of most of it. As a result, coal ash often ends up polluting both surface and ground water, leaching out toxic heavy metals like mercury, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, nickel and selenium.

That’s because coal plants need cooling water, and so are generally located near water bodies. Coal ash is often stored in ponds or pits near the plant, which may be subject to flooding or leakage. But the biggest risk is unseen: contamination of ground water by leachate from old unlined storage pits.

The Obama administration spent most of two terms struggling to regulate coal ash. The big conflict was whether to call it “hazardous” or ordinary solid waste.

The rule finalized in 2014 was a “compromise”  — EPA classified coal ash as a nonhazardous waste, set standards for disposal and left enforcement mostly to the states. That compromise involved environmentalists giving up most of what they hoped for.

Then in December 2016, the GOP Congress passed a further weakening of the coal-ash regs as part of a water projects bill, giving states even more say-so over coal ash.

Now the Trump-Pruitt EPA has proposed the first of two rule changes, giving states even more power over coal ash. Environmentalists are unhappy.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service responders take a core sample Feb. 8, 2014, after a coal-ash spill on the Dan River near Eden, N.C. Photo: USFWS/Steve Alan Humphrey

Disclosure of coal-ash info at risk

For environmental journalists, the most important part is weakening of water pollution monitoring requirements, which would in turn diminish how much pollution data must be disclosed.

Even though the 2014 rule required disclosure, the first comprehensive release of such information wasn’t mandated until just this month.

That data is mostly available online right now — to the extent that utilities actually complied with the deadline — and not including all the legacy ash dumps that were exempted. The problem is, it’s only accessible through a link-list of utility sites where it is actually posted.

If you are interested in reporting on water pollution from coal ash at the state or local level, click on your local utilities to see what’s up. And follow up by calling them.

The reason to look at the data now is that, if EPA and the utilities get their way, some of it might go away. Some big news organizations like the Associated Press may (or may not) compile it all in one handy place. If you are very lucky, utilities may post another batch of data a year from now.

There is a lot more data on coal-ash pollution elsewhere, too. First stop would be the Environmental Integrity Project’s Ashtracker site, which you can search geographically. Also, TipSheet recently shared some other reporting resources.

It is worth remembering that not all the possible contaminants from coal-ash sites are officially listed by EPA as problematic for drinking water. Remember, too, that quite often the results of ground water contamination show up in private wells, where data may be more iffy (but where contamination matters just as much). Also be aware that bad things can happen during flood events.

The other part of the story is political. Electric utilities often have service areas as big as, or bigger than, a state. This makes them politically powerful and often makes state regulatory agencies subservient. Leaving more and more regulatory discretion to the states only amplifies the opportunities for utilities to put their own bottom line ahead of the public’s health.

And keep a weather eye out for EPA’s second installment on the coal-ash rule rollback.

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* From the weekly news magazine SEJournal Online, Vol. 3, No. 11. Content from each new issue of SEJournal Online is available to the public via the SEJournal Online main page. Subscribe to the e-newsletter here. And see past issues of the SEJournal archived here.